1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printers. More particularly, the present invention relates to ink jet printers.
2. General Background of the Invention
High quality ink jet printing is usually done in one direction (unidirectional) and in multiple passes to hide repetitive defects in dot placement. For each firing of an ink jet nozzle there may be more than one drop, a main drop and one or more accompanying satellite droplets. These satellite droplets are generally smaller than the main drop and are at varying distance and direction from the main drop.
Prior art has attempted to reduce or eliminate satellite drops with varying degrees of success. This is usually done by controlling the drive signal to the resistive heater element or piezo-electric element. There is also some prior art for edge-feed thermal ink jet to compensate for topography of the nozzle plate near the edge of the silicon substrate. This prior art typically does not mention controlling satellites, but is concerned with the main drop misdirection.
One of ordinary skill in this art should be able to find details of the invention not specifically disclosed herein in, for example, patents and other references and prior art products mentioned herein.
The following patents are believed to be related to the first embodiment of the present invention: U.S. Patent Document Nos.:
4,282,533; 5,406,318; 5,867,189; 6,126,282; 6,247,794; 6,264,850; 6,293,644; 6,299,281; 6,336,710; 6,491,833; 6,505,912; 6,527,354.
The following patent documents are believed to be related to the second embodiment of the present invention: U.S. Patent Document Nos.:                5,896,154; 6,250,739; 6,367,908; 2002/0054187; 2003/0025749; 6,491,377; 6,505,905 (same application as 2003/0025749); U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,376        
The following patent documents are believed to be related to the third embodiment of the present invention: U.S. Patent Document Nos.:                5,859,653; 5,870,117; 6,053,598; 6,302,505; 6,302,506; 6,464,330; 6,497,467; 6,523,926; 6,530,635; 6,536,869        
The following patent documents are believed to be related to the fourth embodiment of the present invention: U.S. Patent Document Nos.:                3,976,756; 4,048,639; 4,246,589; 4,380,017; 4,384,296; 5,142,296; 5,638,101; 6,220,693; 6,491,377.Japanese patent document no. JP358217372A.        
The following patent documents are believed to be related to the fifth embodiment of the present invention: U.S. Patent Document Nos.:                3,928,855; 4,613,875; 5,337,071; 6,220,693; 6,276,783; 6,293,644; 6,338,545; 6,364,447        
The following patent documents are believed to be related to the sixth embodiment of the present invention: U.S. Patent Document Nos.:                3,981,019; 4,220,958; 4,238,804; 4,393,385; 4,555,712; 4,638,337; 4,827,280; 5,396,273; 5,422,664.        
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,049,899 and 6,474,763 are also believed to be of interest.